Title: Unholy Alliance

Summary: Ryan finds he has common ground with Julie Cooper.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to The O.C. No profit is taken from this story.

Author's Notes: This takes place after episode 2.12 The Lonely Hearts Club. It is based on the previews for episode 2.13 The Test in which Caleb wants to adopt Lindsay and Lindsay's mother Renee confides in Ryan that Lindsay cannot take a paternity test with Caleb. AU

Chapter 1

"You will not believe my mother."

Ryan got the call from Marissa right before bedtime. As usual, she wanted to vent about her mother. Ryan was glad that he and Marissa continued to be friends, even after he yelled at her for letting Lindsay get drunk during their girls' night out. He was glad that he had gone to Alex's to apologize to her, and that she had accepted his apology.

Since then, Ryan kept Marissa informed when Caleb had his heart attack, and Marissa liked to call Ryan to share Julie's latest antics. She said that she knew Ryan would appreciate them.

Ryan lay back on his bed in the pool house. "What did she do this time?"

"You know how we've known all along that she just married Caleb for his money?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, she finally admitted it out loud. She told me at dinner tonight that she doesn't know how long she'll be married to him, and she wants to get as much out of him as possible before he kicks her out."

Ryan smiled. "She really said that?"

"Well, maybe not quite in those words..." Ryan laughed softly. "... but something to that effect. She did say that she's after his company. And you won't believe what she wants me to do."

"What?"

"She wants me to suck up to Caleb, too, to keep my 'inheritance' from going to 'Little Miss Lindsay', as she calls her. She hates it that Cal wants to have a relationship with Lindsay. I guess she thinks of her as a threat or something. How ridiculous is that? I mean, my Dad has money now and everything. I don't need Caleb. I'm not doing it."

"Good for you. Stand your ground." Ryan could hear Julie yelling in the background. "I guess you should go."

Marissa sighed. "Yeah. My Mom's on the warpath again. See you at school tomorrow."

"See you then."

After hanging up, Ryan found himself scowling. It never occurred to him that he'd have to watch out for Julie Cooper in all this. Caleb was hard enough to deal with, and now he'd have to look out for Lindsay with respect to Julie, too. Too bad he couldn't challenge her to a game of pool.

A few days later, when Ryan met up with Lindsay before school, she was all jumping around, almost out of her skin. He'd never seen her so happy.

Lindsay grabbed Ryan's hand. "You won't believe this!"

Ryan had to smile. "What?"

"My Dad - Caleb - he wants to adopt me! Isn't that great?" She continued to practically jump up and down in front of him.

"Yeah. Great."

Ryan tried hard to keep his smile in place. He tried to be happy for her. He knew that she wanted this - that she'd always wanted to have a Dad. But Ryan couldn't help but be concerned. He'd seen how Caleb treated Kirsten like dirt a lot of the time. He knew that Kirsten worked hard just to get some attention from her father, just to hear that he was proud of her. But he never told her that. He knew that broke Kirsten's heart. He didn't want that for Lindsay.

But, he had to grudgingly admit that sometimes having a Dad - almost any Dad - was better than no Dad at all. Sometimes. Not always. He meant it when he told Caleb that day in his office that he was better off not having a relationship with his own father. And from what Ryan knew of Caleb... well.. at least he wasn't as bad at being a father as his Dad. And he wanted Lindsay to have what she wanted. He wanted her to be happy.

"Ryan?"

Ryan turned his attention back to his girlfriend. "Yeah? Sorry... I just... What were you saying?"

"If he adopts me we will finally be, you know, like, legal. I mean now, we all know that he's my Dad, but he doesn't have any parental rights."

Ryan nodded.

"Right." Ryan had to stop himself from saying that maybe that was a good thing. "So, how did all this happen?"

"He asked me to come to his office after school yesterday. Kirsten was there, and Julie. He thanked me for being with him while he was recovering from his heart attack, and then he just came out and said he wanted to formally adopt me."

"Wow." Ryan wondered what Julie thought of that.

Lindsay leaned forward and kissed Ryan. "So, after school, my house? Maybe you can stay for dinner? I mean, you never get to see my Mom. I swear you see Caleb more than my Mom."

Ryan smiled. "Sounds good."

After school, Ryan and Lindsay took her car back to her house. Once there, they retreated to her bedroom and tried to work on their physics lab report, but Lindsay just couldn't stop talking about having Caleb as her real, official father. Ryan had to smile. Lindsay was so similar to Seth sometimes. They both, when they were excited about something, just couldn't keep from talking about it incessantly. It was a good thing that Ryan had developed some coping techniques from living with Seth for a year and a half.

When Lindsay's mother Renee got home from work, she came up to Lindsay's room. As she opened the door, she asked, "Lindsay, what do you want for dinner?" Then she saw Ryan. "Oh, Ryan, I didn't know you were coming over today."

Ryan smiled at her. "Hi, Mrs. Wheeler."

Lindsay asked, "Mom, is it OK if Ryan stays for dinner?"

Renee smiled at both Lindsay and Ryan. "Of course." She thought for a moment. "I could make spaghetti. Is that OK?"

Ryan and Lindsay both said, "Sure."

"OK. Dinner in half an hour."

"Thanks, Mom."

Renee smiled at her daughter as she left her bedroom, careful to leave the door wide open.

Lindsay looked apologetically at Ryan. "Mom has this thing about leaving the door open when a boy is in my room."

"That's OK."

Ryan wondered how often she'd had boys in her room before he came along. They hadn't talked much about their previous relationships, although of course Lindsay knew about Marissa, since they were still friends. And he had to tell her about Theresa and the baby before she heard about it from someone else.

But Ryan hadn't asked Lindsay about her history, and she hadn't offered. He wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to know.

Ryan smiled at Lindsay, then they both settled back down to try and finish their physics homework before dinner.

To be continued